HOUSTON (AP) -Major League Baseball reduced Coco Crisp’s suspension from seven days to five for his role in a bench-clearing brawl during Boston’s game with Tampa Bay on June 5.
Crisp was to start in center field for Friday’s game against Houston. He will begin serving his suspension on Saturday, sitting out the last two games against the Astros and the three-game series in Tampa which begins Monday.
In all, eight players from the Red Sox and Rays were suspended a total of 38 games following the brawl. It was triggered when Crisp rushed the mound after being hit by a pitch from James Shields.
Three Red Sox were suspended: Crisp for seven games, pitcher Jon Lester for five games and first baseman Sean Casey for three games.
The Red Sox received a letter on Friday from John McHale, an executive vice president in the commissioner’s office, with an explanation of the reduction of Crisp’s suspension. Francona would not divulge details of the letter, nor would he speculate on the timing of when Crisp would serve his suspension, forcing him to miss all three games in Tampa.
“I don’t think it’s my business to say what the letter said,” Francona said.
Lester served his suspension from June 6-11 and is due to start Saturday. Casey completed his suspension on Wednesday and Crisp said the fact that he’ll miss the upcoming Tampa series was merely a coincidence.
“You’re just supposed to serve it right after the next guy finishes,” Crisp said. “It works out all right.”
Crisp doubted that any tension between the Red Sox and Rays, fighting for first place in the AL East, would carry over to this week’s series.
“I think everybody’s just going to go out and play baseball,” Crisp said. “This is a whole new series and the other stuff is in the past. We’ll see what happens.”
Jacoby Ellsbury will start in Crisp’s place during the suspension.
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